Tense Vigil

As voting time drew near, the debate within the Knesset assumed the
proportions of melodrama. Would one member return in time from
Argentina? Would former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who had not been
seen in public since he resigned last September, show up to cast the
deciding ballot and thus bail out his successor, Yitzhak Shamir? In the
end, it did not matter: the Knesset approved the opposition Labor
Party's call for early elections, 61 to 58. Though the bill must
survive three more votes, the balloting last week all but guaranteed
that voters will go to the...